Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 816 - 818

Chapter 816: Chapter 818

The air grew heavier. The unseen weight pressed down on him, and the entity within stirred again. It was growing restless. He could feel it shifting in response to something, though it did not speak to him. It had never truly spoken, not in a way he could understand. It communicated through sensation, through the way the world responded to it. And right now, it was bracing for something.

The first sign of movement came from his periphery. The shadows stretched unnaturally, pulling away from the buildings and spilling onto the streets like ink. They did not form into creatures this time. Instead, they rippled and undulated, moving with unnatural purpose. They were not attacking . They were guiding .

Jude stopped, watching as the darkness rearranged itself before him. A path was forming, not one he had chosen but one that was being offered. The entity within him pulsed again, but it did not resist. It was allowing this.

He exhaled and stepped forward. The moment he did, the world changed again.

The city faded, replaced by something else. Not the void, not the endless blackness he had glimpsed before, but something far stranger.

He was standing in a place that should not exist. The sky above him was neither day nor night, but something in between, shifting colors that bled into one another. The ground beneath his feet was solid, yet it was not stone, not earth. It was smooth, reflective, but not like a mirror, more like the surface of a still lake, only it did not reflect him. It reflected something else entirely.

Jude did not move at first. He let himself adjust, taking in the stillness of this place. It was not silent here. There was a sound, a low hum, constant and unbroken, vibrating through the very air.

Then, movement.

Not from around him, but from beneath him.

The reflections in the ground shifted, taking form. Figures appeared, but they were not merely shadows or echoes. They were people . Familiar faces. Some he knew, some he barely remembered, but all of them were connected to him in some way.

And they were speaking.

Not with voices. Their lips did not move, yet he heard them, their words forming directly in his mind.

"You have come far."

"You are close now."

"But you are not ready."

Jude tensed. The figures did not move toward him, did not attempt to attack. They simply existed , their presence pressing against his mind. He did not know if they were real or if they were another test.

"What do you want?" he asked.

The voices overlapped, indistinct at first, then forming into a singular reply.

" The question is, what do you want? "

Jude narrowed his eyes. "I want to reach the tower."

Silence. Then, the figures shifted, parting as something else emerged from the reflection.

Him.

Again.

But not like before. Not a twisted mockery, not a shadowy imitation. This time, the figure was perfect . An exact replica, standing with the same posture, the same expression.

Jude did not speak. He simply watched as the figure stepped forward, closing the distance between them.

When it stopped, it tilted its head slightly, regarding him with familiar eyes.

" You seek the tower, " it said. This time, the words were spoken aloud, the voice identical to his own. " But do you understand what that means? "

Jude did not answer immediately.

" The tower is not the end, " the figure continued. " It is the beginning. "

He had expected riddles, cryptic messages, but there was a directness to this that unsettled him.

"And what does that mean for me?" he asked.

The figure smiled. It was not a comforting expression.

" That depends. Are you willing to lose what you are? "

Jude clenched his jaw. He had already changed. The entity within him had altered something fundamental about him, and he did not yet know the full extent of that. But he could not stop now.

The figure reached out. Not to attack, not to strike, but to offer its hand.

" Accept it, " it said. " Accept what you are becoming. "

Jude did not move. He could feel the weight of this choice pressing down on him. The entity within him remained silent, waiting. It would not make this choice for him.

If he accepted, he knew he would cross a threshold he could not return from.

If he refused, he might never reach the tower.

The figures around him did not speak, did not move. They were waiting.

Jude exhaled slowly, then extended his hand.

The moment his fingers touched the reflection of himself, the world shattered.

Not in a violent explosion, not in a sudden collapse, but in an unraveling. Reality peeled away, layer by layer, and for the first time, Jude saw beyond it.

He saw everything .

The city was not a city. The tower was not a place.

He was not merely a man standing on the precipice of something unknown.

He was the precipice.

And as the last fragments of the illusion fell away, he understood.

The tower was waiting.

Not for him to reach it.

But for him to become it.

Jude found himself standing at the threshold of something he could not fully comprehend. The moment his fingers had touched the reflection of himself, reality had come undone, peeling away like layers of a fabric that had never truly existed. The city, the tower, the trials, none of them had been what they seemed. And now, as he stood amidst the unraveling, he saw beyond the illusion for the first time. But seeing and understanding were not the same thing.

The world around him was shifting, not with the erratic chaos of before, but with an eerie sense of purpose. The figures that had spoken to him in silent voices were gone, faded like whispers in the wind. The ground beneath his feet was no longer reflective, no longer showing things that did not belong. It was solid, dark, and unmoving. The sky, however, was another matter entirely. It churned like a living thing, streaked with color and shadow, light bleeding into darkness in ways that defied logic.